Five steps on How to start a map

[40oz]

Let's say you have been a member here for enough time, now. You've messed around with the editor long enough to know what you're doing. Perhaps you've even made a few maps in the past. You've read plenty of posts about mapping and you feel generally prepared for what curveballs the editor could possibly throw at you. Still for whatever reason, every time you pull up the map editor, you can't seem to get any momentum to get started. What is the correct way to start? Do you make a rough layout first? Do you detail some rooms to get an idea for what the map is going to look like? Should I start putting monsters on the map yet? How do you know this map isn't garbage already? Perhaps you have visions in your head for what a cool map will look and feel and play like. But for whatever reason the task of starting that new map and carrying it through the entire map making process and into a releasable WAD file that people can download is just too much, and whenever you open that editor your faced with the reality that you really don't have an entire map planned in your head and your once vivid ideas float away like a feather in the wind. Well then this tutorial is for you.

 

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1. Plan

 

Understand that the map building process takes time. For some people it can take several hours, and others it can take months. You might get the idea for a map in a quick vision in your memory, but this is liable to become fuzzy, or be replaced with different images or even vanish completely. In short, keeping too much information in your head is likely to get lost throughout the map building process. An idea for a map can come from anywhere. Perhaps you were walking in a park and saw a cool shaped house or a forest or a playground that gave you an idea. Maybe you were watching a doom video, demo or live stream and a cool thing happened that you'd like to expand on. Perhaps you were playing a cool megawad that lead you to have different expectations than what actually happened. Doom is full of memorable moments but these moments get lost to memory. These memorable moments are very important for making fun Doom maps. Doom 2 is loaded with these memorable moments. There's the Cyberdemon/Mastermind fight in Gotcha, the crushing machine in The Crusher, the massive monster swarm in the Suburbs, the skyscrapers in Industrial Zone, the chain of explosions in Barrels of Fun, just to name a few. These memorable moments make up a large part of what makes Doom so enjoyable for us. Anytime you get an idea for a cool event in a map, WRITE IT DOWN. Keep a pen and paper near your computer desk at all times, or use a notekeeping app on your phone. Whenever you see something cool in a Doom map that you'd like to see done better, or if you have an idea for something in a map that's never been done before, describe it the best you can in a few short sentences. You don't have to describe the entire map from start to finish. Keep it simple, maybe even draw some pictures, or name the map in advance so you can generate those visions in your head each time you review it. Since the map building process takes time, having these things written down ahead of time will help carry the map building process along, The idea surrounding the map will be in a written form that you can refer to at any time to during times of doubt.

 

2. Experiment

 

You shouldn't assume that each sector you draw in the map editor is going to be part of a complete map you intend to release. Consider the map editor like it is Garry's Mod. Just mess around with things, and create little micro scenarios for yourself. Can you survive in a room with 4 archviles and a cyberdemon? Would this sequence of switch activated lifts make a fun platforming puzzle? How fun is it when you make a trap that has bigger traps layered within it? How many barrels does it take to kill 20 Hell Barons? How cool will a tower look in the middle of a blood ocean? How scary is a horde of arachnatrons when the player has a megasphere and an infinite supply of rockets? If the answers to these types of questions aren't particularly obvious, take the time to find out! Perhaps you will stumble on a very interesting memorable moment that's worth writing down. Rid yourself of the pressure of making something that people are going to like by adapting the mindset that you are simply fucking around to see what can happen in Doom. It doesn't matter if its good or bad because this is supposed to be entertainment for you. You're just exploring Doom's potential. It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.

 

3. Embrace

 

An unfortunate thing that mappers often run into when starting their map, is that they often can't tell where the map is going. It could be a stroke of genius, but it's also entirely possible that the map is a stinkpile. If you are someone who has created something once that you were proud of and when you showed it to someone, they didn't give you the response you were after, you may have developed a defensive wall for yourself. It's more than likely you have your own doubts while creating and this is keeping you from getting beyond the starting point of a map. If this sounds like you, then there is something you need to understand. Your map is going to suck before it gets good. Your map looks like shit because its not done yet. It's likely that the first 60% of the map building process will be highly unremarkable. This is okay. This is usually the case with everyone. When the map is complete, that's when it will be interesting. You may need to remind this to yourself often. Throughout your mapping process, you'll have to stick to a detail level reminiscent of the Doom 1 and 2 IWADs to keep the skeleton of the map malleable. You don't know if you're going to need to make a fundamental change to the map until you actually start playing it, so for that reason, keep things simple. I often advise to use a 32 or 64 size grid for everything except stairs, doors, windows, and switch panels. Remember to keep the focus on the dimensions and shapes of the rooms, making linedef triggers work correctly, and where important items and monster encounters will be, at least until the map is in a state where you can play it from start to exit. The map will undoubtedly look plain and boring in this state and you will have to get over it until the map is functionally complete before decorating it with nice trims and lighting effects and other pretty stuff that makes it screenshot worthy.

 

4. Create

 

From your list of memorable moments, pick one or a few of which you feel most interested in pursuing. Preferably ones that you may have experimented with, or are at least certain will be cool and interesting for your players. Begin creating your map, starting with this memorable moment. If you have a memorable moment where grabbing a plasma gun triggers a stampede of hell knights, or an intricate puzzle where you have to press a sequence of switches to access a keycard, or a mysterious and large epic piece of architecture where the exit is located, build this particular part of your map immediately, and craft it to be the best it can be. The context of this particular moment doesn't matter. Put the player start in the area, complete with supplies the player will likely need to reasonably complete it. Design and test this particular moment to be the best it can be. This special moment is your vision and is the most important part of your map.

5. Complete

 

I had a writing teacher who taught me that when writing a persuasive essay, you should never start writing from the introduction. How can you introduce something that doesn't even exist yet? You should strengthen your body paragraphs first. Then write your introduction and conclusion when its complete. This line of thinking parallels with mapping quite well. Once you've completed the central focus of your map, the rest of the map can safely decline in interesting attention-grabbing events. It doesn't necessarily matter if the rest of the map is demonstrably worse as you move on, because this particular exciting event in your map made everything else worth it. You can proceed to construct the rest of the map outwards toward the exit, and build in reverse chronological order towards the start. By the time you're mostly finished with your map, you can build a cool grand introduction that accurately sets the scene for the rest of the map. Then you can drag your player start to the beginning and spread the supplies out throughout the map. You may also control the conclusive ending that wraps up your map as well.

 

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Anyone can make a map. The process is not as complicated as some may perceive it to be. The concepts and methods outlined above puts the expectations of the map more in your control as the mapper and frames them in a neat and usable format. You can be sure that your map has a clear purpose because it is designed to highlight this particularly exciting and memorable event that you have written down and chosen specifically for this map. When the memorable event is created first, the bar is high enough that anything else you create for the map that is seemingly lacking only serves to make the moment that much more significant. The process of building the map from the middle out gives you a good visual for controlling the difficulty curve and the narrative of your map, as you can make the map purposefully softer as you advance the map towards the start, and choose design tropes that foreshadow the upcoming event. I'm hopeful that this guide will help eliminate self-doubt and keep the map building process within a scope so that mappers can stay focused throughout the course of mapping and complete maps that accurately capture the cool ideas they have.

Edited April 28, 2017 by 40oz

[Not Jabba]

30 minutes ago, 40oz said:

Your map looks like shit because its not done yet.

I've been telling myself this exact thing over and over again in the last 6 months. It's a great way to look at mapping. And one of the things I really like about Doom editing is how easy it is to just rip out a room and completely redo it.

 

Thanks for the tutorial. Great stuff!

[Shanoa]

To this, if i may, i'd like to add the following, it probably doesn't fit the general idea of 40oz's thread but i figured i should add it here.

 

- Know your mapping limit, do not try to go for an amazingly detailed level on your first couple of tries at mapping.

- Don't be afraid to share your maps with the community, even if it's basic in design and detailing. Better to nail gameplay and good texturing rather than making an unbalanced, visual mess of a map.

- Accept criticism, no matter how harsh it might be, in a mature way. Do not be disheartened, people just wanna help you.

Optional: Don't be afraid to partake in community project, there seem to be a lot more projects that welcome new mappers. It's a good way to motivate yourself to map considering you'll be contributing to a group effort.

 

Now the first point is bolded simply because it varies greatly from a person to another. Some might be very meticulous with their work, even if its their first time, and end up releasing an impressive map. Others might take several maps before they get a better grasp at detailing, theming and such.

 

This is it from me, someone else can probably elaborate better if need be. Beside that, this thread is excellent and i'll make use of it myself. I need to start also listening to my own advices cause i'm guilty of so many things 40oz and myself said, beside the criticism part i mentionned. But boy am i scared to map, lol.

[Impie]

Also, sometimes the answer is simply to take your two or three unfinished maps and marry them together. I did this with almost all of my maps: I'd work on a new map 'til I had no idea where it was going, stop and begin work on another map intended for another map slot, then go "aha!" and Frankenstein 'em. I think doing this divides each map into distinct "chapters" that can be progressively more challenging and eventually lead back into one-another.

 

Or maybe I'm just a lunatic.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

A lot of this echoes ideas that I've stumbled upon in my own course of experimenting with mapping, but it's good to see them reinforced.

 

I feel as if this video, although it's about drawing, expresses some ideas that are pretty applicable to level design as well.  Basically the same idea of "redo a similar thing a bunch of times and take a look at what versions worked the best."  I know I have one map in my WIP project that I basically entirely rebuilt from the first version that was one of the earliest maps in the set, keeping the same idea but with the goal of "do it better this time".